Butterflies, Green Tigers and Blue Roses
by Temperance Cross
Summary: - Part 3 of 3 - She woke up from dreams of butterflies, green tigers with devious smiles and blue roses that morning. - karina / tiger -


She woke up from dreams of butterflies, green tigers with devious smiles and blue roses that morning. She doesn't feel one hundred percent, but she knows that it won't even matter when she's at the beach and under the sun.

The sand feels good against her feet, she notes, leaning back into the towel, hands laced behind her head and sunglasses low on her nose, hiding most of her closed eyes while the sounds of happy shrieks and splashes of water reach her ears. She can hear him calling his daughter and she can her his daughter calling back and then the splash and the tell tale sign that Kaede managed to dunk Kotetsu with a simple leap off of Antonio's shoulders. She can feel Keith's eyes on her and she knows he's nudging her with a foot, to try and get her up and moving, but she obviously has none of it.

"Yeah?" she questions, opening a brown eye to look up into blue and Keith only smiles lazily, before nudging her again and shaking his head.

"You jealous that Kaede's here and everyone's putting their attention on her?" His voice is gentle and she can feel him sitting down besides her on the blanket, he tugs her up and against his side and she can only make an annoyed noise before shrugging and shaking her head. She doesn't feel jealous at all, in fact, it's refreshing, she likes the sound of Kotetsu being happy. She doesn't know how she could feel otherwise.

"No, why would I?" Her voice is honest and she can tell Keith is surprised, he shifts the younger against him again and rests his cheek against the crown of her head. She almost swears she can hear him thinking, the gears turning and the thoughts pouring through his blond head, she's shifting closer and leaning against him more. She likes Keith's smell, warm, safe and inviting; nothing like Kotetsu's though it was still safe in a way, but it was different. "If you're gonna say something, say it," she urges and the shocked noise that comes from her poking Keith's chest makes her grin.

"I figured that you'd want his attention only on you now that it's out there," he hums, honesty is his policy and Karina finds it almost confusing, completely unlike Kotetsu's. She likes it though, so she keeps resting, listening to him think. "I mean... Four and a half months, right? You get possessive if someone so much as touches Kotetsu in a way you deem unchaste." His words are true, not blunt, put nicely, she almost finds them annoying. Almost. "But you're completely all right with his daughter, you haven't asked him to take off his ring... You're not expecting to be dumped are you? If you are, tell me, I'll tell the others and we'll talk to-"

"I'm not competing with a dead woman and his daughter," she cuts him off, sharp browns looking up at blues and for once she can see how shocked Keith was. "I'm not asking the impossible of him, being jealous of his wife and daughter would lead to one of us walking away. Striving to replace a dead woman is impractical, she'd beat me in every place that he loved about her. He knows this, I know this, we're still together. I'm possessive of him, yes, but I'm never going to come between him, his daughter and the memory of his wife. I'd lose every time." She can tell Keith is shocked by her maturity, by her sense of where she was in a relationship, but, frankly, she doesn't care all that much. She turns her gaze over to the two grown males and teenager in the water, before grinning slightly. "Besides, if he didn't love me for who I am and not who I could be; then we wouldn't be here."

She's up and running towards the three, joining in by protecting the younger girl from a splash and then tackling Kotetsu into the water and dunking him repeatedly. She joins in the water fight, managing to leave accidental scratches over Antonio's back (she has attempted to cling to him when he was trying to buck her off, thus leaving some nasty scratches and breaking one of her nails) and almost broke Kotetsu's nose twice from him sneaking up on her. Kaede managed to not get into the fight, even going so far as to hide and protect the elder teen from attacks when she was nursing a bleeding lip and a scratched knee.

She hadn't laughed this hard in ages, she knows, especially as she's walking along the boardwalk, brushing her hair and listening to Kaede talk about her school and other things.

"You're really good for dad," she hears suddenly, making her cheeks flush and eyes focus on the younger, but before she can continue, the girl sprouts more pretty words. "He seems happier, I like it, you seem really nice too. You're not pushing anything on him like other women would. I came over to his place earlier, went into his bed room and found Mom's picture right where it was when I last saw it. He just added a picture of us when we went shopping in Burkshire," Kaede continues, reaching out and clinging to the other's arm. "He says you have a really wonderful voice too, you should sing sometime, I bet you're really good. Dad only sings really stupid songs, like, in the car, he just belted out some weird oldie about a rose and a kiss on the grey? It was weird, pretty though."

Karina can't stop from flushing and reaching up to rub the bridge of her nose. Stupid bastard, she knows he would sing that when she wasn't there... but with his daughter in the car. She smiles slightly and quickly tugs Kaede's hand and leads her to a bench, lightly moving to brush and braid the brown hair. "Thanks," she says so quietly, she swears the other didn't hear her, but she gets an amused noise, before she assumes it's all right to continue. "Yeah, it's a pretty song, but very weird," she mumbles afterwards, then laughs quietly. "Hey, think we can go bug that guy for his guitar for a little while?" She notices the excited look in Kaede's eyes as soon as she asks the question, she almost expects the too eager nod as the two go to get the man and bug him quietly for his guitar. It's only too soon before they come back and sit down on the blanket.

Karina knows the song she's gonna sing and Kotetsu seems to be unable to take his eyes off of her as she begins to strum. It's a warm up and she can already feel her heart beating in her chest. This is the first time she's played for just friends and family and not for a crowd that was listening to her music because she was just there. She racks her mind for songs and then settled on a song, knowing it'd be best to slow it down.

"iTonight, I wanna give it all to you, in the darkness... there's so much I wanna do/i," she purred quietly, keeping her eyes on Kotetsu's, watching him his grin split across his face. She looked away finally, continuing it quietly. She knows his eyes are completely on her a she gets to the chorus, vaguely, over the strumming of her guitar and heart, she can hear Kaede mumbling something about how beautiful her voice is, but his eyes are all she can really tell being on her. By the time she finishes, she's flushed and in need of some water, reaching out and making a grabby handed motion at Keith who can only laugh and hand over the water bottle he was drinking from.

She can't look at him, but her cheeks are still flushed and she's fucking sure he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat, she's not sure if she wants to hit him for it though. She squawks though when Antonio grabs the guitar to hand it back to the man who she borrowed it from, she's well aware of it now that she drew a crowd to them. The woman flushes once more, looking down at the blanket and mumbling a thank you to those who listened and she can only hear a round of applause that burst through the crowd. She wants to hide, but she can feel warm arms tugging her in a direction and a possessive huff being blown against the back of her neck. She doesn't hit him this time, instead relaxes and leans up to kiss him with closed eyes. Kaede makes a cheerful noise and she's looking at the girl who just decided to flop across her lap for snuggles as well.

It's then that she hears the first few snide comments about her choice in men. Eyes snap open and it takes Kotetsu nuzzling her and tightening his grip around her to keep her from flying at the man and punching him. Instead, she hears Kotetsu snort and give a loud, "At least I can get a girlfriend at this age," she melts and relaxes slightly, before smirking and waving her hand lazily.

"Especially one as hot as me," she adds snidely, sticking her tongue out at the man, before nuzzling Kotetsu more. She recognizes the man as one of the board-members in her fan club, but she doesn't care. The man is retreating licking his wounds and the crowd is disbursing and she feels perfect.

They have a barbeque and have a bonfire, then say their goodbyes, she catches a ride home with Kotetsu and Kaede. Kaede is asleep before reaching the half way home point before the blond looks over at Kotetsu properly for the first time. She can't help but smile, knowing she was lucky and no one else would be able to drag him away from her for at least a few years. "Kotetsu," she finally mumbles, spending a good fifteen minutes staring.

"Yeah, Karina?" She still loves how he says her name, it makes her shiver and tug the sweater closer around her body.

"I love you." She says the words meaning so much more than they are supposed to, they aren't the right words to describe what she meant, she realizes, not at all. Yet, she still knows that there will never be words that described it completely, thus, those three would need to do.

"Love you too," he purrs back, making her shiver again and she catches his eye glancing at her and then Kaede.

"Can I spend the night?" She deems it suddenly important to ask, eyes turning back to the road.

"Eh? Yeah, of course, why wouldn't you be able to?"

"Kaede's sleeping at your place, isn't she? She mentioned it, I think."

"I think I can handle it."

"Good."

Her chest swells and she settles down completely, reaching for the blanket that was kept for her in the front seat, curling up into it, before her eyes close. She's happy, she knows, she's happy and he's there with her and she can't think of anything better.

She only wakes up when the car is parked and the car is unpacked, only a sleeping Kaede and herself left. She can see Kotetsu coming back out to get Kaede and she's laughing quietly, before unbuckling herself and getting out of the car and making him yelp.

"Get her," she manages out with a soft yawn, before stumbling sleepily inside, almost tripping over the haphazard placement of the bags and items they used during the day. She does finally trip and squeaks as a warm arm wraps around her waist to steady her. "Stupid," she manages out as she's set on her feet and lets him through to put his daughter to bed. She takes up the chance to quickly move the bags away from the door, before rubbing her nose and yawning and getting a drink.

Somehow, she expects him to take the couch while she takes the bed when Kaede's here, but she doesn't expect him to scoop her and the bottle of pepsi up and carry iher/i up to the bedroom and set her down and start getting undressed in front of her. Her sleep addled brain makes her stupid, she notes, watching with a dry mouth as warm skin is shown to her, before she blinks herself into action and makes a lame attempt at grabbing the shirt she's claimed from his out stretched hand. He's obviously amused by her dazed expression, as he helps her get undressed and puts the shirt on her, before crawling onto the bed and snuggling in close.

She's asleep almost instantly and dreaming of white butterflies, green tigers with winning smiles and blue roses.

When she wakes up, she knows he's not in the bed and she can hear Kaede awake and chirping away happily about how much she liked the other woman. It makes her smile.

After shuffling into some stolen PJ pants, she comes crawling down the stairs and the smell of fresh eggs, bacon and she knows he was waiting for her to make the toast. She doesn't have to be told, before she goes to it instantly, she remembers that he likes crunchy peanut butter and vaguely, she assumes that Kaede would prefer butter on a bagel and she gets herself some cream cheese on one as well. She's half out of it when she's swept into a group hug from two over enthusiastic brunettes and she can only give a gentle laugh and pet the younger's head and kiss the older's cheek.

Stupid toast-loving weirdos, she notes as she sits down and eats everything. They're both finished long before her and she's okay with it, simply eating and being half brain dead and enjoying their chatter. It takes her a while to realize that they're talking about the day before and how much fun it was, she smiles and then coughs into her elbow and suddenly all attention is on her.

"Are you okay?" she blinks and looks at Kaede, before nodding dumbly, and soon she's having a pair of lips being pressed against her forehead and she can hear mumbling about a slight fever and she's coughing again. Suddenly, she's falling off the stool and she feels like she's floating back to the bed.

The next two days are a blur, she can remember vague worried noises and off handed comments from someone with a low voice that she wasn't going to die from a simple something-or-other.

The next thing she can vividly remember is having a cool cloth pressed against her forehead and a worried face looking down at her. She jerks up and almost punches Kotetsu, but is quickly pressed back down and reassured. "Hey, hey, careful there, Karina, just me," his voice is soothing and she's relaxed, she tugs him down and presses his face between her chest. "You've been sick," he adds muffledly, seemingly all right with the sudden breasts in his face.

"Stupid," she grunts out and tugs his hair. "Don't tell me you-"

"Sleep, Karina."

Her eyes drift closed and once again, she dreams of butterflies, green tigers with lazy grins and blue roses.

She comes too when he's besides her, reading and comfortably petting her.

"Love you," she mumbles quietly, again meaning so much more than the words could relay to the other. She assumes he gets it as he curls around her and nuzzles and mumbles it back in the same way.

She doesn't think that there's anything better than this.


End file.
